HMCS Star

Early history (1800s)

Naval activity in Hamilton Harbour can be traced as far back as the middle of the 18th century when the HMS Lord Melville, later HMS Star, of the British Provincial Marine plied Lake Ontario conducting coastal protection operations.

During the Lower and Upper Canada Rebellions of 1837, a naval militia from Hamilton ignited a diplomatic crisis, known as the Caroline Affair, when a group of Hamiltonians captured the Canadian rebel supply vessel, SS Caroline, killing an American crew member and then setting fire to the ship before sending it over Niagara Falls.^[3][4]

Destruction of the American steamboat Caroline

With the passing of the Militia Act of 1855 by the Colonial Government, the Hamilton Volunteer Marine Company was stood up.^[5] Seven years later, on 31 January 1862, out of fear of invasion from the United States, the Hamilton Volunteer Naval Company was stood up under the command of Captain Thomas Harbottle and Lieutenant George P. Malcomson.^[4][6]

In 1866, as the American Civil War ended, the Hamilton Naval Brigade was called out on short periods of active duty guarding the city and manning steamboats in response to Fenian cross-border raids.^[5] For their service during the Fenian Raids, Hamilton's naval volunteers were awarded the Canada General Service Medal with the Fenian Raid 1866 bar.^[7][8]

With the passage of a Militia Act of 1868 in Parliament, the Naval Companies of Garden Island, Toronto, Hamilton, Dunnville and Port Stanley were requested to signal their intention to remain in active service. The Hamilton unit failed to meet the February 1869 deadline and therefore phased itself and Canada’s first, formal naval reserve out of existence.^[9]

First World War (1914–1918)

When the Royal Canadian Navy was formed on 4 May 1910, there was no corresponding naval reserve. In 1914, the Royal Navy Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR) was stood up with minimal government support.

In 1916, the Hamilton Committee was formed to recruit sailors overseas division of the RNCVR. The Hamilton Committee included well known Hamiltonians, such as Hamilton city Alderman Captain George J. Guy and John H. Collinson, the first Headmaster of Highfield School for Boys.^[10]

Between the wars (1923–1939)

First location of HMCS Star on Bay St. Hamilton, ON

On 31 January 1923, Privy Council Order #139 established the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) and on 15 March 1923 Lieutenant Ralph H. Yeates was appointed as the first commanding officer of the Hamilton Half Company (RCNVR).^[11][12]

The Half Company initially shared offices with the Navy League in the Imperial Building on the corner of Main Street East & Hughson Street South in Hamilton. On 2 November 1923, the Half Company moved into the W. Grant Sail Loft on the corner of Bay Street North and Burlington Streets, sharing its building with Sea Cadets who had been formed six years earlier.

On 2 July 1935, the Hamilton Half Company moved to the Williamson & Company Vinegar Works building at 41 Stuart Street, between Bay & MacNab were it stayed until 1943.^[13][14]

Second World War (1939–1945)

Recruiting advertisement for the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve, Overseas Division

On 1 November 1941, the Hamilton Half Company was commissioned as HMCS Star and became a major recruiting depot and wartime training barracks for the Royal Canadian Navy and the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS). As late as 14 October 1941, the unit was considered to be called HMCS Brant, but the name was changed, likely to avoid confusion with a recently launched corvette HMCS Brantford.^[13]

On 7 May 1942 it was announced by the Navy that each major naval reserve unit would help meet the growing demand for technically skilled sailors within the fleet by training personnel in specialist skills. Shifting from a purely recruiting role and now to one of specialist training, Star was assigned to train new sailors in radio and electrical engineering. With that, 130 young men from across Canada were assigned to Hamilton and their training was divided between Star, Westdale Technical School (radio work) and Hamilton Technical Institute (electrical engineering). Due to the large compliment of sailors at Star, a full medical and dental service was added to the unit.^[15]

In the winter of 1942, the University Naval Training Division (UNTD) concept was introduced in Hamilton by Professor A. W. "Jack" Baker, when he stood up an experimental reserve training division at the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) in Guelph. Attached to HMCS Star for the school term, Baker aimed to establish other Naval Training Units at universities across Canada to secure recruits who will otherwise enter the army's COTC Canadian Officers Training Corps or the air force's University Air Training Plan (UATP).  

In February 1943, with the success of the UNTD in Guelph, Professor Baker was brought into the RCNVR as an Acting Lieutenant Commander (SB) and appointed to the position of Staff Officer University Naval Training at McMaster University in Hamilton. Under Naval Order 2854 dated 19 June, 1943, he set out across the country to establish 15 UNTDs.^[16][17] By the time the UNTD program was shut down in 1968, over 7,800 reserve officers were commissioned, of which 500 had trained at Star; and of whom fifty-three lost their lives during the Second World War.^[18]

On 1 February 1943, the Department of National Defence purchased 2.04 hectares (5.0 acres) near Eastwood Park from the City of Hamilton to accommodate the growing unit. On 24 April 1943, the foundations were laid for a new HMCS Star building, with the opening occurred six months later.^[19] Intended as a prototype for Naval Reserve structures, the building demonstrated good craftsmanship and handling of materials.^[19] At this time, HMCS Star had a strength of approximately one thousand personnel with 681 in trades training, 281 undergoing basic training and 56 officers.^[13][20]

Between 1941 and 1945, HMCS Star enlisted and trained 7,490 officers, men, and women for service during the Second World War and Hamilton sailors were to display dauntless courage and resourcefulness during the war. The Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to Chief Petty Officer Donald Portree, Torpedoman Dan Gearing and Signaller Eugine Tobin.^[21][13]

Cold War (1945–1989)

Following the Second World War, HMCS Star returned to a peacetime footing, reactivating in October 1946 as a reserve division.^[22]

In June 1949, a party of sailors from the unit made a visit to former RCN corvettes being readied to be scrapped at Hamilton's steel mills. Their visit was to salvage whatever material would be of instructional value to the Division and to bring back memories to those that served on the ships during the war.^[23] In the same month the wardroom at Star was the first wardroom in the Royal Canadian Navy to be fitted with a television receiver, with programs coming in from as far as Buffalo, New York.^[23]

In July 1949, a training programme for naval reserve air maintenance personnel was announced to be opened at HMCS Star. The program featured specialist training and instruction in naval aircraft maintenance for 100 personnel. Full training equipment, including Supermarine Seafire aircraft was provided by RCN Air Station, HMCS Shearwater, with training being conducted in addition to the normal week-day drill.^[24]

In August 1949, HMCS Star provided a Fairmile-B class motor launch, two harbour craft, a cutter and two whalers to Exercise "Operation Seahorse" carried out in the Burlington Beach area. This navy, army and air force reserve exercise included transferring Royal Canadian Army Service Corps personnel and supplies from boats to amphibious DUKWS and then to shore while under aerial attack. The ships from Star succeeded in landing the army force, while Air Force reserve pilots conducted low level strafing attack and flour bag "bombardment" on the attackers.^[25] Earlier that same year, HMCS Star personnel aboard HMCS Portage participated in a similar inter-service assault landing exercise at Port Stanley, Ontario.^[26]

In January 1950, the HMCS Star Boxing Club was formed from the ship's company and the Hamilton Sea Cadet corps. The club staged fights with bouts between the Star crew and fighters from the Ontario Agricultural College of Guelph and Shamrock Athletic Club of Hamilton.^[27][28][29] During the same year, HMCS Star operationalized its first radar set conducting training and tracking ships entering and exiting Hamilton Harbour.^[30]

In June 1950, the unit sent its Fairmile-B class motor launch, PTC 706, to partake in exercise "Operation Beaver", a tri-service reserve beach assault manoeuvre at Port Stanley, Ontario. The exercise involved land units, including the Elgin Regiment, Kent Regiment, Essex Fusiliers and the Windsor Essex Scottish Regiment; sea units, including PTC 779 from HMCS Prevost, PTC 762 from HMCS Hunter and PTC 706 from HMCS Star; and 11 aircraft from the No. 420 City of London Auxiliary Squadron, RCAF.^[31] During that same summer, PTC 706 spent weekends away from Star conducting various evolutions and making Ports of call to Port Dalhousie, Toronto, Youngstown, Cobourg, and Rochester, New York.^[32] In mid-August 1950, PTC 706 joined the minesweeper HMCS Portage and other Fairmiles from Toronto and Kingston for fleet manoeuvres off Presq'ile.^[33]

In November 1950, when hurricane winds caused by the Great Appalachian Storm struck the head of Lake Ontario and waves washed away lake shore cottages from Van Wagners beach, approximately 50 officers and sailors from Star and UNTD Guelph were amongst the first to respond as rescue crews. The sailors filled and placed heavy sandbags on temporary dikes, rigged lifelines and helped in other ways. In the midst of the rescue operation, the sailors were recalled back to the unit to rescue three Fairmiles (PTC 706, PTC 721 and PTC 761), turned over to a Hamilton yard for winter storage, that had broken their lines.^[34]

In 1951, a new reserve summer Great Lakes Training Scheme was set up to provide basic naval training on the Great Lakes for new recruits and officers. Administered by the commanding officer of HMCS Prevost, Commander F.R.K. Naften, the program was conceived to provide seagoing experience for men of the RCN(R) who have not completed the six-month new entry training program. Before being sent to ships and fleet establishments, until they were considered sufficiently trained, the new scheme was intended to give new sailors the experience they needed on the Great Lakes. With six motor launches at his disposal, the new Reserve Training Commander Great Lakes called upon PTCs from HMCS Star, York, Cataraqui, Prevost, Hunter and Griffin to form the "Fairmile Flotilla". From 16 to 17 June, the flotilla conducted its first task, "Operation Beaver II", a 1,700 reserve troop tri-service amphibious landing and airdrop exercise at Erieau.^[35] Prior to the amphibious landing of of nearly 500 army troops on three beaches from the Fairmiles, PTC 716 from York layed a smokescreen and paratroopers from the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment captured an airfield at nearby Chatham to allow friendly air support. Buzzing the "enemy" craft and ground troops with flour bags, a squadron of Harvard and Mustang aircraft, from No. 420 City of London Auxiliary Squadron, RCAF took on the role of enemy air forces.^[36] After the successful exercise, the flotilla spent the rest of the summer conducting other sailing activities and evolutions on Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior before returning to their units.^[35][37]

In 1954, HMCS Star, stood up a sub-unit (tender) located in Kitchener, Ontario between, in addition to its location at Hamilton. The unit was closed in 1964^[38]

In 1952, HMCS Star's importance as a naval training facility was bolstered by the establishment of the Great Lakes Training Centre (Fleet School Hamilton), making Hamilton the summer home to thousands of naval reservists from all over Canada.^[39]

In 1953, HMCS Star gained another neighbor, HMCS Patriot, another stone frigate transplanted from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Established now in Hamilton, HMCS Patriot housed the Commanding Officer, Naval Divisions (COND), the forerunner to today's Royal Canadian Naval Reserve Command Headquarters.

Previously based in Toronto during the Second World War under the title Commanding Officer, Reserve Divisions (CORD), COND now supervised 21 naval divisions across Canada and directed the summer operations of the Great Lakes fleet reserve training ships, HMCS Porte St. Louis, HMCS Porte St. Jean, and former air force supply vessel HMCS Scatari, permanently stationed at HMCS Star for use by the reservists.^[40][41]

Hawker Hurricane at Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum C-GCWH, YHM Hamilton, ON (John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport)

In 1953, a Naval Reserve Air Squadron (No. 1 Training Air Group) was established at HMCS York in Toronto sending HMCS Star one Hawker Hurricane and two Supermarine Seafire aircraft to be housed at RCAF Station Hamilton, now known as the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. Not given its own squadron, due to its close proximity to Toronto, the crew from HMCS Star maintained a support unit for ground crew and maintenance conducting joint training with HMCS York at RCAF Station Downsview in Toronto.^[41]

With the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces in the mid-1960s, significant changes came to HMCS Star.

In 1964, The Great Lakes Training Centre was disbanded, as was the naval air arm maintenance unit. In 1967, The Hamilton Service Battalion and The Hamilton Medical Company, later renamed 23 Service Battalion and 23 Medical Company, took over HMCS Patriot /COND building after the closure of their Burlington Street Armoury in September of that year. In 1969, the base now called Canadian Forces Reserve Barracks Hamilton was placed under control of CFB Toronto.

Post Cold War (1990–present)

On 27 September 1997, HMCS Star officially opened their new state-of-the-art building, replacing all of the original World War II-era buildings that had housed the Division since its commissioning in 1941.

In 2003, HMCS Haida, the destroyer known as “Canada’s most fightingest ship” - now a National Historic Site run by Parks Canada - was moved to a site directly in front of HMCS Star, now serving as a lasting memorial to the veterans of Canada’s Navy, and a testament to the ongoing connection between Hamilton and this heritage.^[42]

HMCS Haida berthed at Pier 9, on Hamilton Harbour, directly alongside HMCS Star

HMCS Star is the home to over 200 naval reservists and generates trained individuals and teams for Royal Canadian Navy's domestic and international operations, while at the same time supporting the Canadian Armed Forces efforts to connect with Canadians through the maintenance of a broad national presence.^[43]

HMCS Star sailor on Naval Security Team workup training prior to deployment in 2017

Description

Azure an estoile Or charged with a maple leaf Gules.^[57]

Significance

The device used for the badge is an "estoile" or heraldic star. The red maple leaf, an emblem of Canada, indicates that the "star" pertains to Canada.^[57]